Have we reached the end of plasma panel display production?

(Reuters) – Samsung SDI Co Ltd said on Tuesday that it will shut down its plasma panel production business, citing the decline in overall demand for plasma display panel televisions. Samsung SDI, in a statement, said it will concentrate its resources on growing its energy and materials businesses. The firm plans to end all plasma display operations by November 30 2014. This follows after Panasonic’s statement from last year outlining that Panasonic’s latest television, the ZT60, is the best plasma the company has ever made. It will also be the last plasma panel to come out of the company’s research and development department, which means Panasonic will never make a higher-quality plasma television.

Rumors that Panasonic would end plasma research and development first surfaced in December 2013, and a report from Nikkei the following month said the company had closed down R&D with plans to pull out of plasma altogether as early as 2014. Panasonic Display Vice President Kiyoshi Okamoto confirmed to The Verge today at an event in New York that development has ceased, and said that the ZT60 uses “the last plasma panel” from research and development. Okamoto was quick to note, however, that panel development is not the same as television production: he made it clear that Panasonic would continue to make and sell plasma televisions into 2014 at the very least, saying that “we have a responsibility” to customers to continue production.

The only main company still producing and developing is LG, but now with all other main actors leaving the ship this might also come to an end… what do you all think?